Grassy,

I don't want to be didactic. My favourite vehicle for an idea is an extended
metaphor. It allows all those good things you mentioned and hopefully a
jumping off point for any reader to assess the idea in the context of their
own life, should they wish it. It also allows the fusion between thought and
feeling in a way that is difficult to sustain in  prose. Most ideas remain
abstract but if I think I can give them emotional significance or relevance
to the events of daily life then I'm inclined to have a go. As Keat's said,
we do not really know something until we feel it in out pulses.

If all else fails I may resort to a frank statement, but it's an act of
desperation rather than desire. The door poem and the one before it are like
that. In such cases I may introduce the idea with an example, but the
example is intentionally bland as it's only an introduction rather than the
poem in itself. If the combination is boring and has a boring title then I
need to be told that. Not just need - would choose to be told that if it is
an honest reaction.

If all else fails and an idea is stated frankly I would rather it continue
to exist than not exist. I feel this way about Larkin's Aubade for instance.

It would be a marvellous thing if a reader could suggest means through which
ideas (such as those in the door poem) could be expressed better, but so far
the consensus has been that I should cut them out and make a poem out of the
introduction. These suggestions were made helpfully and I'm very much in
touch with the helpfulness and I'm glad they were made. Furthermore I can
learn other useful things from them in ways that may not have been intended
(for instance that what I'm on about is so obscure that I need a radical
rethink).

I do not think of such poems as lectures. I think of them as sharing my own
weaknesses in the knowledge that they are among the collective weaknesses of
humankind. In the act of writing them I understand social and global events
better. Can the reader do the same, by testing the ideas against their own
experience? I've no idea. I certainly don't sit at my desk with some kind of
fantasy that I'm changing people or making the world a better place. I just
can't help finding life interesting and my poems are a spontaneous overflow
of that interest. There may be many reasons why this sentiment is not
shared.

Finally, don't get the impression that all my poems are about ideas. I also
write loads of poems that are sentimental and twee, with no ideas to share,
though it may be harder than I know to tell the difference between them.

Colin

P.S. I like generalisations and the distinction between closing down and
opening up in prose and poetry is one that I want to hang onto.




----- Original Message -----
From: "grasshopper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: newsub/door/grasshopper


> Colin,
> I often think writing poetry is very like juggling -- or like walking a
> tightrope while while you're juggling.
> The fact is that if you simply want to get ideas across in a didactic
way,if
> you want to explain things in exact terms, the best medium is prose these
> days. I think (and it's only my opinion) readers of poetry expect
something
> different from the poetic experience -a certain amount of ambiguity (but
not
> simply lack of clarity), the potential of different layers of meaning and
> interpretation..
> I don't think a reader of poetry expects to be lectured, or told what's
> what -it is more slant-wise, more suggestive, more open.
> When thinking about the difference between prose and poetry, I've often
> thought that the movement of prose is towards narrowing down, while that
of
> poetry is towards opening out. Very simplistic, I know, and there will
> always be exceptions.
> Kind regards,
>   grasshopper
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Colin dewar" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 7:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [THE-WORKS] newsub/door/grasshopper
>
>
> > Your comments are always interesting even when they are robustly
> expressed.
> > A number of people have mentioned the expositionary thing and I take it
> > seriously. I'd like to think that my poetry is getting less expsotionary
> as
> > time passes. Maybe I'm a slow learner. Besides many of these were
written
> > before I got that advice. Even so I've cut out a fair amount of
exposition
> > before posting them here.
> >
> > Even in fantasy I've never imagined these poems the best expressions of
> > those ideas. Hence the benefit of feedback.
> >
> > There is of the course the difficulty that hinting and complexity are
> > awkward bed fellows. If I pick a complex topic, difficult to put across
> with
> > all the resources of didactic prose and then hint at it subtly in a poem
> > that gives the reader a double layer of difficulty to get thro' . I know
> > that's not what you're suggesting I do. It's just something I have to
try
> > harder to resolve. Throw in entertainment value too and that's a lot of
> > plates for me to keep spinning!
> > Best Wishes,
> >
> > Colin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "grasshopper" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 10:27 PM
> > Subject: Re: newsub/door
> >
> >
> > > Dear Colin,
> > > I found this much more interesting than the previous poem you posted.
> > > I wonder, however if S2 isn't too expositionary, and if there isn't a
> more
> > > subtle way to draw parallels between doors and people.
> > > Supposing you omitted S2 and added a little to S1 ? My first thought
> (and
> > I
> > > don't think it's very good ) is 'I didn't like my colleague'
> > > I think it's usually best to suggest, rather than spell things out.
> > > Apologies if my comments are of no interest to you.
> > > Kind regards,
> > >     grasshopper
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Colin dewar" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 6:45 PM
> > > Subject: [THE-WORKS] newsub/door
> > >
> > >
> > > > The Door
> > > >
> > > > I didn't like the door when it appeared.
> > > > So I noted how hard it was to use,
> > > > made jokes and sneered,
> > > > and whenever someone else chose
> > > > to speak against it I strongly agreed
> > > > and quoted them for the rest of the day.
> > > > After a while gossip had enough to say.
> > > > I did nothing more than watch
> > > > as another door was put in place.
> > > >
> > > > It could have been a person
> > > > so familiar the unfolded tale,
> > > > malice and mechanism from nowhere
> > > > or so it seemed, the subterranean gene
> > > > suppressed but remembering its origin
> > > > in tribal strife, and how it made its way
> > > > as proxy for original sin.
> > > >
> > >
> >
>